China's leading oil company China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) will hold discussions with the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) in late April to jointly develop the onshore Muradhanly Oilfield in Azerbaijan, said officials with the Chinese embassy in Azerbaijan. 

Natik Aliyev, president of SOCAR, said that two companies will carry out feasibility studies about joint exploration of several Azerbaijan's onshore oilfields.He declined to confirm whether Muradhanly Oilfield was on the list. Aliyev was quoted by Zhongguo Shiyou Shangwu Wang as saying that CNPC may choose oilfields or oil blocks to explore during the meeting. China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corp. (CNODC), a subsidiary of CNPC, will take part in the Sino-Azerbaijan discussions as well. 

As reported by Interfax on January 25, CNODC and CNPC (Hong Kong) Ltd. acquired 30% interest in the Kursangi and Karabagli oil fields in Azerbaijan. The two subsidiaries of CNPC signed separate agreements to acquire shares in the oilfields from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for USD 52 mln. 

[Presenter] The successor to Exxon Mobil [as heard], Exxon Azerbaijan Operating Company, has quitted the Oguz oil field because the exploration well it drilled was empty. The president of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic [SOCAR], Natiq Aliyev, indirectly justified Exxon's decision in his interview with Space TV.

[Correspondent, over video of Aliyev, oilfields] Exxon will cease drilling at the Oguz structure because it is small, both in size and in oil reserves, Aliyev said.

[Aliyev] In my opinion, it is possible that Exxon will decide to quit the Oguz structure altogether. Because if the first exploration well did not find anything then this means that a part of the structure lacks oil and gas. Reserves in the second part of the structure will probably prove insufficient for them.

[Correspondent] Geological prospecting implies risk and can be either successful or not, Aliyev said. But drilling one or two wells does not prove that there are no reserves in a structure. If a foreign company quits an oil structure that does not mean that the structure does not interest SOCAR. Each exploration well drilled for geological prospecting is important for Azerbaijan, Aliyev said.

Exxon will not pay compensation to SOCAR for abandoning the Oguz structure because the agreement signed by the two companies stipulates Exxon's responsibility to drill only one well. This is what Exxon did.  Sulhiyya Sirinova, Ali Rzayev, Fuad Karimov, Source: Space TV, Baku, in Azeri 1200 gmt 3 Apr 02

The Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC), conducting development drilling on its Chirag Field, has confirmed its extended reach Chirag-16ST well has flowed at 18,000 b/d of oil, making it the highest confirmed flowrate of any Azerbaijan well on- or offshore. 
The well was drilled 21,655 ft in length by the semisubmersible Istiglaliyet and tested in December. 

The Chirag Field is part of the unitized Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field complex offshore Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea's Absheron prospect. It is being developed on schedule in a US$3.5 billion program targeting major production from the complex by 2005. 
According to AIOC President David Woodward, extended reach drilling has proven to be exceptionally successful. At least two additional extended reach wells will be drilled in the Chirag Field section of the unitized fields this year. 

The unitized Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli Fields are believed to harbor more than 4.5 billion bbl of oil reserves.
Members of AIOC are the operator, BP, and ExxonMobil, Lukoil, Statoil, Unocal, Socar, TPAO, Itochu, and Delta Hess. 

New oil well #211 was commissioned on the Gurgan-Daniz field, which had been inoperative since 1989, the onshore oil and gas production unit said Wednesday. This high flowing well produces 50 tons of oil a day. Oil is extracted from the Kirakin suite 1805 meters deep. The drilling was completed in September last year and followed by four-month comprehensive geological researches and reservoir trials. The well is situated on the shallow-water part of the field, south of Pirallahi island in the water depth of 3-10 meters. It had been under exploitation since 1947, yielding 80 to 100 tons of oil a day. In 1989, all the wells on the field, which reportedly amounted to 121, were liquidated.

EXPLORATION WORK ON NORTHERN PIRALLAHI

The footage in exploratory well #495 in the northeastern part of Pirallahi oil field reached 225 meters, the SOCAR oil and gas production unit said Saturday. The estimated depth of the well is 1550 meters, with its commissioning scheduled for July this year. Oil deposits on the northern part of Pirallahi are estimated at 1.2 million tons. Four wells have already been drilled there, proving an oil bearing area. The latest fourth well was bored in late December 2001, yielding 30-40 tons of oil a day from the depth of 1400 meters.

The drilling will extend to wells #496 and 497 on the eastern part of the field in case the drilling of the present fifth well squeezes any oil. The tectonic features of the field and other geological conditions are also being studied. Stationery platforms will be fabricated on the field in prospect.

JANUARY OIL, GAS OUTPUT PLAN FULFILLED

Azeri oilmen extracted 756,200 tons of oil against the plan of 746,900tons. The plan targets were over-fulfilled both on- and offshore, as 624,500 tons of oil (100.7% of the plan) was produced onshore and 69600 tons (106.6%) offshore. Joint ventures extracted 62100 tons of black oil (101.5%). Also fulfilled was the gas production plan in January, when 450.8 million (101.8%) cubic meters instead of 443 million was produced. Offshore gas output plan was fulfilled (346.5 million cubic meters) and onshore projection over-fulfilled with 13.2 million cubic meters against the plan of 12.7 million.AIOC produced 82.6 million cubic meters of gas (109.3% of the plan) last month. Copyright 2002 AzerNews

Surakhanineft oil and gas production unit is expected to drill 6 production wells with a total depth of 14,000 meters in 2002. Two brigades of Ali Bayramli drilling unit has been brought in to help drilling, a SOCAR source said Wednesday. 750 out of the 14,000 meters has been bored to date.
 
 

WELL COMMISSIONING PLAN OVER-FULFILLED

64 wells were commissioned in January this year with the projection of 37 wells. 6 of the wells were new and 58 from the stock of inoperative wells. 16 wells are offshore and 42 onshore. Joint ventures and operating companies commissioned 6 wells.

AZERBAIJAN, GEORGIA SIGN PROTOCOL

A protocol on the exchange of decrees on ratification of the agreement between Azerbaijan and Georgia on transit, transportation and marketing of natural gas from Shah Daniz field through and outside the Georgian territory via the South Caucasus pipeline and appendixes to the agreement were signed at the Foreign Ministry in Baku Monday. Signing the agreement on behalf of Azerbaijan was foreign minister Vilayat Guliyev and on behalf of Georgia its ambassador Zurab Gumberidze.

DRILLING OF TWO WELLS COMPLETING ON HOVSAN FIELD

Final operations are underway on the onshore Hovsan field of the Gum Adasi oil and gas production unit to complete the drilling of two wells there, a SOCAR source said Friday. The wells will be commissioned as soon as operational columns are supplied. Zykh and Hovsan fields are to be owned by LUKoil, which is believed to possess 50% stakes in both deposits. The fields are flowing at 350 tons of oil a day. LUKoil has already been provided necessary documentation. The flow rate on the two fields reported 17 tons a day before 1995, with only three wells available, two on Hovsan and one on Zykh. Intensive drilling started on the former after scientists put its estimated recoverable reserves at 20 million tons of crude. As a result, nine new wells have been bored on Hovsan and Zykh, increasing output volume 20 times.

Baku, 19 October: In January-September this year the Azerbaijani International Operating Company (AIOC, operator of the project is the British company BP) extracted 4.38m t of oil from the Ciraq oil field, which is 5.806,000 t more than in the same period in 2000, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee has told Turan. 

In September the volume of oil extraction by the AIOC totalled 4.766,000 tonnes, which is 57,500 t more than last year. The increase has been achieved by modernization carried out in the middle of the current year on the extraction platform. 

More than 16.6 t of oil have been extracted from the Ciraq field from 7 November 1997 to September 2001. The consortium extracted 5.1m t of oil last year, and plans to raise the volume to 5.8m t this year. 

The prospecting contract for the Azeri, Ciraq and Gunasli oil fields was signed on 20 September 1994 in Baku. 

AIOC carries out oil extraction from the Ciraq stationary field. The German company Deutag Drilling carries out the exploiting extraction. At present, 15 wells have been drilled at the platform, 11 of which are for exploitation and four are technical. The drilling of 16 exploratory wells is under way. 

Baku, 11 July: The press service of SOCAR [State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic] has told Turan that the Salyan Oil operating company has reached the oil stratum at a depth of 3,950m at the first exploration well of the Qarabagli onshore field [southwest of Baku]. 

According to the report, during test drilling at this well daily output totalled 130t of oil. "This is an impressive result for onshore Azerbaijan," the SOCAR spokesman said. 

The press service also said that despite the planned 528t of oil, the daily output of Salyan Oil company has maintained the level of 735t over the first six months of 2001, which is 207t more than envisaged. The operating company extracted 13.3m tonnes of oil, implementing the plan by 139.3 per cent. Compared to last year's level the growth is 54.6 per cent. A total of 12.2m tonnes (130.5 per cent) of oil was delivered to the state. 

The overall expenditure of the first exploration totalled about 5m dollars. 

To recap, the exploratory drilling was carried out by the Croatian company Crosco International, which started drilling on 15 April this year. According to the order of Salyan Oil operating company, it also started drilling works in Kursangi, which is within the contract area of the operating company. This time the Croatian company plans to use the horizontal drilling method. 

The expenses of the operating company totalled 47m dollars in 1990-2000. It plans to invest more than 60m dollars in oil extraction and rehabilitation of wells in the current year. 

Source: Turan news agency, Baku, in Russian 0720 gmt 11 Jul 01 
 

Baku, 28 June: The Chevron company finished drilling the first exploratory well on the Abseron prospective structure at the end of last week, an informed source from SOCAR [State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic] has said. The source said that a drilling team of the Caspian Drilling Company joint venture had drilled a well of a depth of 6,506m. Experts say that natural gas and gas condensate reserves have been found in the contractual area, but that forecasts by local and foreign experts that the Abseron contains 3,000bn cubic metres of gas have not come true. It was believed earlier that the reserves on the Abseron could exceed those at Sah Daniz by three times. 

The Abseron prospective structure is located 40km southwest of the Azari-Ciraq-Gunasli contractual area and covers an area of about 160sq miles (400sq km). The area is at a depth of 800-2,100 feet (250-650m) in the south of the Caspian Sea. MPA news agency, Baku, in Russian 28 Jun 01